State lawmakers are excited about state schools Supt. Tom Luna's proposal to tap the state's school endowment earnings reserve fund for more than $50 million to help balance the school budget. "I give him credit for coming up with it," said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, "Those are the kind of ideas we need in order to balance this budget." Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, a former school principal, said, "I thought it was a great plan. ... We don't need three years of reserves, we need one year of reserves. I quite frankly am delighted." Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said, "I would of course love to have that to help alleviate the shortage in our education funding. ... I'm going to wait eagerly to see what occurs."

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